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REUTERS. Italy's antitrust authority has fined 26 pasta makers and an industry group 12.5 million euros($15.92 million) for operating a cartel, the agency said on Thursday. Barilla, the world's biggest pasta maker, was handed the largest fine, 5.7 million euros, for the price-fixing scheme.
The cartel's members made up about 90 percent of Italy's market for pasta, a national staple, the antitrust watchdog said in a statement. (Read the Article)
FORBES. Milan's Fashion Week, which kicked off on Wednesday, is apt to be a tame affair this year, as the Italian clothing industry grapples with the impact of the global financial crisis. This year there will be fewer fashion shows, with many firms opting for modest exhibitions, according to the Italian Chamber of Fashion. (Read the Article)
FOX NEWS. Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. filed the lawsuit because the regional compact is refusing to let the company dispose of up to 1,600 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy at its Clive, Utah facility, about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City.
Congress created regional compacts in 1985 to provide states with a way to dispose of their own low-level radioactive waste. However, only two regional facilities were ever built — at Richland, Washington and Barnwell, South Carolina. EnergySolutions' site is America's largest low-level radioactive waste dump and the only one available to 36 states. (Read the Article)
VOA NEWS. Pope Benedict XVI has named the archbishop of Milwaukee, Timothy Dolan, as the new archbishop of New York. In the 1970s, Dolan studied at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, an elite seminary that has produced several prominent U.S. church leaders. (Read the Article)
REUTERS. A gas company belonging to Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselberg has got clearance from Italian authorities to build one of Europe's largest gas storages in Italy by 2011.
Swiss-based Avelar Energy, which forms part of Vekselberg's Renova holding, said in a statement it would invest 400 million euros ($512.5 million) to build the storage in the province of Matera in Southern Italy. (Read the Article by Dmitry Zhdannikov)
EASY BOURSE. Italy's foreign minister Frattini said he hoped the U.S. would agree to an Italian proposal to invite Iran to talks on stabilizing war-torn Afghanistan during a Group of Eight diplomats meeting in June: "We would like Iran seriously involved in the stabilization (of Afghanistan) and that it should be conducted in a transparent way". (Read the Article)
MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA. In recent days, CNN has repeatedly aired a report by Drew Griffin on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Italy, with Griffin questioning "[w]hy, in a time of economic crisis, would the speaker, who happens to be of Italian heritage, travel to Italy." Griffin stated in his report that Pelosi "has been going to museums in Florence, receptions at night, and was even presented with the birth certificates of her grandparents by the head of the Italian chamber of deputies."
In discussing Griffin's report, CNN anchors called the trip a "junket overseas at taxpayer expense," said critics view it as Pelosi "living the dolce vita," and claimed the purpose of the trip is "to meet with Italian leaders and visit museums". (Read the Article)
NPR. The Italian car manufacturer Fiat says it still wants a big piece of the troubled U.S. automaker Chrysler. Fiat spokesman Gualberto Ranieri said that Fiat will be providing the American carmaker with $3 billion to $4 billion worth of technology.
Fiat says it will not get a penny of any possible U.S. government bailout funds for Chrysler, and Ranieri insists that all production will be on U.S. soil. If the deal works out, Fiat would have access to Chrysler's distribution network and realize its decades-old dream to enter the large and lucrative U.S. market. (Read the Article by Silvia Poggioli)
EASY BOURSE. Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti plans to sign final documents Wednesday to start a long-delayed government program to lend EUR12 billion to Italian banks to keep credit to industry flowing, people familiar with the situation said.
The move paves the way for several of Italy's largest banks, including Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, UniCredit SpA and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, to tap the facility by issuing bonds that the government will buy. (Read the Article by Jennifer Clark)
FINANCIAL TIMES. France's EDF and Enel of Italy - Europe's largest utilities - are set to relaunch Italy's nuclear industry after a 22-year hiatus. The move will follow an accord due to be signed in Rome today by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Silvio Berlusconi, Italian premier.
The choice of the two energy companies - both in effect state-controlled - reflects the "national champions" policy of both governments. It confirms the dominance in Europe of EDF and French nuclear technology in the form of the next generation European Pressurised Reactor. (Read the article by Guy Dinmore)